The A Team

If you're stuck on the East Coast during a record setting heat wave and you have cabin fever but you can't stand to be outside, you might find yourself at a matinée showing of The A Team. Hey, it's cold in those southeastern theaters.

The A Team is a movie based on a TV show that I never saw. It's about a gang of tough guys,US Army Rangers who sign up for impossible assignments and succeed against all odds, usually by planning very carefully to take absurd risks. So these four dudes sit down in improvised war rooms and make intricate plans, not letting us in on too much so we don't see how all the pieces of their masterful plan come together until it's underway. It's sort of like the old Mission Impossible TV show without the brains, since mostly these guys blow stuff up and leap onto cars and then shoot people. They get shot at, too, but no one ever seems to hit them so it doesn't matter.

The characters are iconic, so we don't need to get to know them because we already know who they are. Liam Neeson plays Colonel Hannibal Smith, the brainy planner; Bradley Cooper is Lt. 'Faceman' Peck, the real cute finesse guy; B.A. Baracus is brawny Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson (Mr. T in the television show) and Sharlto Copley is Captain H.M. Murdock, a complete nut case who also happens to be a terrific pilot. The plot involves -- well, there's missions and betrayals and something about Iraq, but mostly there's a lot of explosions and cool escapes and bad guys getting their just desserts. There is no reason to see this movie, but if you're in the mood for typical summer escapist fare, this will work. (Incidentally, since the characters are so familiar I felt like I understood them better than the ones in more splashy recent event films ... I'm looking at you, Christopher Nolan.) C+